One Paseo: Traffic jams for Carmel Valley

The One Paseo development project in Carmel Valley needs San Diego City Council approval to move forward. The current Carmel Valley Community Plan allows 510,000 square feet but the developer is asking to build over 3,650,000 square feet. The long-delayed traffic study estimates an additional 27,000 cars will be brought to Carmel Valley streets every day by this enormous development. All those cars will jam up local traffic and many residents are waking up to this fact. One Paseo is being promoted as “Main Street for Carmel Valley” because the much more honest “Traffic Jams for Carmel Valley” would not have the same marketing appeal.

Carmel Valley residents have a choice. They can act now and ask City Council representative Sherri Lightner to vote against One Paseo or they can spend hours mired in traffic jams and regret their inaction for years to come.

The one area of agreement with the One Paseo project is for mixed-use development. As I collected signatures for a petition in opposition to this project, most people liked the idea of mixed-use but want it scaled down to what is currently allowed in the zoning. If the big LA developer is truly listening, they should hear this community loud and clear. We want a mixed use at the 510,000 square feet currently allowed in the Carmel Valley Community Plan, not a super-sized choke point.

Of course, it is not just Carmel Valley residents that will be stuck in traffic if One Paseo is approved. Everyone traveling on Interstate 5 (I-5) and on highway 56 will also feel what the Environmental Impact Report refers to as “Significant Unmitigated Impacts.” So Solana Beach, Del Mar, Poway, Rancho Santa Fe, and Rancho Peñasquitos will all get caught in the traffic congestion. And if you consider the 27,000 cars from the One Paseo Project being added to the traffic going to the Fair or the Del Mar races, much of San Diego will waste hours stuck in traffic.

To learn the facts, check out the 1-minute YouTube video I created at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpmO8EXlKLM

Michael Durkin

Carmel Valley